The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

From the Ethics of the Fathers: "He [Rabbi Tarfon] used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it."

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Brennan’s Quest for a Moderate Hezbollah

by Michael Rubin

President Obama’s choices of John Kerry, Chuck
Hagel, and John Brennan to lead respectively the State Department,
Pentagon, and Central Intelligence Agency confirm that Obama wishes to
position his legacy somewhat to the left even of Jimmy Carter. There has
been a lot of attention to Chuck Hagel’s record over the last couple of
weeks, but John Brennan has benefited from flying under the radar, if
only because of the controversy surrounding Hagel.

It’s worth recalling, however, Brennan’s comments in 2010 upon returning from a visit to Lebanon. From a Reuters report at the time:

The Obama administration is looking for
ways to build up “moderate elements” within the Lebanese Hezbollah
guerrilla movement and to diminish the influence of hard-liners, a top
White House official said on Tuesday. John Brennan, assistant to the
president for homeland security and counterterrorism, met with Lebanese
leaders during a recent visit. “Hezbollah is a very interesting
organization,” Brennan told a Washington conference, citing its
evolution from “purely a terrorist organization” to a militia to an
organization that now has members within the parliament and the cabinet.
“There is certainly the elements of Hezbollah that are truly a concern
to us what they’re doing. And what we need to do is to find ways to
diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements,” Brennan said.

I have added the emphasis regarding Brennan’s suggestion that U.S.
policy should be to build up “moderate” Hezbollah elements rather than
seek that group’s destruction. The question should be especially
important now, because Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fall could
starve Hezbollah of the oxygen it needs; never has Hezbollah’s future
been so tenuous.

While back in 2010, I took a tongue-in-cheek approach
to figuring out what a Hezbollah moderate might be, the questions
senators should ask first would be whether a second term Obama
administration will outstretch its hands not only to adversarial
regimes, but also to terrorist groups, and second, what Brennan’s
instincts would mean for a CIA under his leadership.Michael RubinSource: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2013/01/07/john-brennan-quest-for-a-moderate-hezbollah-cia/Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.